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<span style='font-size: 12pt'><span style='font-family: Microsoft Sans Serif'><span style="color: #003300">Hi folks,
I just wanted to draft a note about some of the things that I am hoping to see happen for BCF in the coming year. If current membership growth continues, I expect that 2008 will be the year we finally break the 5-digit barrier (10,000). As a result, one thing that will probably be the biggest change (mostly for me) is that I am seriously considering incorporating BCF and running it more like a business than just a hobby. BCF would continue to be a free forum as always and my commitment to continuous improvement would not change. I am currently fairly benign about seeking supporting vendors. Most of the vendors we have supporting BCF now are here because they contacted me, not the other way around. I am going to be more proactive in bringing aboard supporting vendors in the future. Also, I am hoping to increase the number of personal web sites as well as commercial sites (if I incorporate to limit my liability) that are hosted on my server(s).
In other news, the next major version of the forum software is in development and should be out soon. There are many changes and improvements planned for the next version. Some of the changes are only significant to the system admin or moderators, but many will impact the end-user. One new feature that is planned for a future version is the addition of member journals. I am not sure how this will be implemented yet, but I am hoping to have some influence in how member journals work. This won’t be in the next version, but will probably be in the version after this next one.
BCF Get Together. Something I have wanted to do for as long as the BCF has been online is to have some sort of official gathering/event for BCF members. We had started discussing doing this last year and even had a special forum set up. The problem was, there were too many good ideas on how best to implement this, plus I got distracted with work and never got back to it. I plan to bring back the BCF reunion idea for 2008 and forum for discussing it, but this time I intend to have a little more control over how we approach this. Basically, my thought is to break the country into regions and decide on ONE city for each region. Then, we need to decide on a date - ONE date - one which the event will occur. NO matter where we do this or what date or dates, we will not be able to accommodate everyone, so I want to arrive at our best stab at the best locations and date and then press. If it works out well, we can always change locations for a region in following years. Also, I would like to get a small number of volunteers to take on setting up things for each region…you know the old adage of too many cooks…
One last thing – I think I still have 3 XL white BCF T Shirts left. If you would like one of them, go to the BCF Store (Click HERE ). These will be sold on a first come first served basis.
I’m excited about the future for BCF! Here’s to a great 2008 for everyone!</span></span></span>
I just wanted to draft a note about some of the things that I am hoping to see happen for BCF in the coming year. If current membership growth continues, I expect that 2008 will be the year we finally break the 5-digit barrier (10,000). As a result, one thing that will probably be the biggest change (mostly for me) is that I am seriously considering incorporating BCF and running it more like a business than just a hobby. BCF would continue to be a free forum as always and my commitment to continuous improvement would not change. I am currently fairly benign about seeking supporting vendors. Most of the vendors we have supporting BCF now are here because they contacted me, not the other way around. I am going to be more proactive in bringing aboard supporting vendors in the future. Also, I am hoping to increase the number of personal web sites as well as commercial sites (if I incorporate to limit my liability) that are hosted on my server(s).
In other news, the next major version of the forum software is in development and should be out soon. There are many changes and improvements planned for the next version. Some of the changes are only significant to the system admin or moderators, but many will impact the end-user. One new feature that is planned for a future version is the addition of member journals. I am not sure how this will be implemented yet, but I am hoping to have some influence in how member journals work. This won’t be in the next version, but will probably be in the version after this next one.
BCF Get Together. Something I have wanted to do for as long as the BCF has been online is to have some sort of official gathering/event for BCF members. We had started discussing doing this last year and even had a special forum set up. The problem was, there were too many good ideas on how best to implement this, plus I got distracted with work and never got back to it. I plan to bring back the BCF reunion idea for 2008 and forum for discussing it, but this time I intend to have a little more control over how we approach this. Basically, my thought is to break the country into regions and decide on ONE city for each region. Then, we need to decide on a date - ONE date - one which the event will occur. NO matter where we do this or what date or dates, we will not be able to accommodate everyone, so I want to arrive at our best stab at the best locations and date and then press. If it works out well, we can always change locations for a region in following years. Also, I would like to get a small number of volunteers to take on setting up things for each region…you know the old adage of too many cooks…
One last thing – I think I still have 3 XL white BCF T Shirts left. If you would like one of them, go to the BCF Store (Click HERE ). These will be sold on a first come first served basis.
I’m excited about the future for BCF! Here’s to a great 2008 for everyone!</span></span></span>
